Brookfield's Teacher of the Year 'Happiest Helping Others'

Marty Settle, the teacher of the year for the Brookfield schools, said that since arriving four years ago he has tried to establish a “family-oriented” program in which his special education students at Brookfield High School (BHS) take field trips, go to dinner, take bicycle rides together and work at local businesses.

“The students don’t have a lot of opportunities for socialization, so we have a social club,” he said regarding the collaboration between the special education programs at BHS and the Bethel, New Milford and Newtown high schools.

Settle, who was named as the district’s teacher of the year earlier this month, said many of his students are in the program from age 14, when they arrive as freshmen,  until age 21, since the federal government mandates instruction for special education students be provided until that age.

This year he helped start The Future Is Ours program for the post-high school students, which is partly modeled after similar programs in New Milford and Danbury.

“The program is geared toward transition,” said Settle, who also is the life skills coordinator at BHS. “We try to get the students ready for life after high school.”

He said they spend considerable time working at jobs at local businesses and agencies and practicing their shopping skills at various stores. Some of the students have taken classes at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury.

Board of Education (BOE) Chairman Ray DiStephan said in a recent interview that he was impressed by the presentation that Settle made on the program during one of the BOE’s meetings late last year.

“He’s also a genuine, caring person, and I think that comes through to students,” he added.

“When I was leaving my position in Danbury to take the job in Brookfield I must have had at least half a dozen people say that when you get to Brookfield you will be so impressed with Marty Settle,” said Charles Manos, who became the school district’s director of special education and pupil services last October.

“I’ve never had something like that happen before,” he added.

“I work with students labeled with significant disabilities,” Settle said in his speech at the school district’s recognition reception June 7 at the Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury.

“I see abilities, not disabilities,” he added. “On a daily basis, I see students who give 110 percent effort, provide honesty in the pure form, and just want to be loved accepted and respected.”

Settle said in a recent interview that he has “spent a lot of time developing positive relationships with the parents,” noting that the four cooperating school districts even hold an information session for families.

“I’ve been at meetings that Marty has had with the parents and they have had a tremendous amount of trust in what he does,” Manos said.

Upon moving to the area from Woodbridge, Va., he said he was impressed with Brookfield’s commitment to special education from the time he interviewed for his position with BHS Principal Bryan Luizzi.

“He really understood what the program was about,” he said of Luizzi, who .

Settle said that unlike some other schools, where the special education classrooms are in the basement or the back of the building, at BHS they are located in a main hallway on the first floor.

“That demonstrates a personal investment,” he said. “Brookfield is very committed to special education.”

Former Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) Principal Judith Brockelman, who worked in the school district for 35 years, said in a 2005 interview, shortly before she retired, that Brookfield established a strong special education program decades earlier, even before there were additional state and federal mandates.

Settle said Pauline Smith — the former director of special education and pupil services for the district, who arrived about the same time that he did — was able to develop more in-house services that have allowed students from out placements to get their education in the Brookfield schools.

He said that since Smith left last June to take a similar position with the Norwalk schools, he has seen similar results under Manos.

Settle said special education services were undergoing reforms in the 1970s, when he began working with disabled individuals part time while earning his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from George Mason University in Virginia.

“The students are guaranteed an individualized education plan,” he said regarding the federal mandates that were enacted around that time.

While earning his master’s degree in Transitional Education from George Washington University, Settle’s mentor recommended that he observe a special education class, which led to his interest in entering that field.

He has now taught special education in high schools for 20 years.

Settle and his wife, Lois, who is an elementary special education teacher in Waterbury, moved to Watertown four years ago to be closer to his mother’s family.

They have three children — Anne, 19, Daniel, 16, and Kristen, 11.

Settle, who received an award last year from the Western Connecticut Association for Human Rights (WeCAHR) in Danbury, will supervise a summer school program at BHS over the coming months and also organize conferences for overseas schools through the federal State Department.

“I’ve found that I am happiest when I’m helping other people,” he said.